A Royal Engagement
by Zymosis
Summary: "That's actually what I wanted to talk to you about today; our engagement, I mean," "O-oh?" Wolfram said and tried to conceal the sudden tremble in his hands. "Yeah, I want to end it," standalone sequel to Yuanfen


I spent so much time editing this and trying to fix it and make it perfect that I'm scared I might have actually over edited it. But I just can't change anything else in it or I'd never get it uploaded. So I guess Yuuri and Wolfram may be a little bit OOC? I'm such a bad judge of that though, I don't even know...

Anyway, this could sort of be looked at as a sequel to my first Yuuram oneshot, Yuanfen, but it wasn't necessarily _meant_ to be a sequel so it definitely also works as a standalone.

_Disclaimer_: I do not own Kyo Kara Maoh! the series, novels or manga, or any of the characters therein.

* * *

Wolfram could not remember a time when he felt more at peace with his life. It was as though the entire world had turned to honey and sugar blossoms before him and not a single thing in the universe was wrong. There were, of course, things that Wolfram still _wanted_, such as for Yuuri to finally set a wedding date, or to actually best Conrart in a sparring match, but these were things that Wolfram could wait for. He wanted them, but he didn't need them right now.

No, what Wolfram needed right _now_ was to get out of bed. He had never been so lazy in his life and it seemed that Yuuri's recent affections had begun to turn him into as much of a wimp as his fiancé. The affections included two and a half kisses exactly, the half being a trembling peck on the forehead which Wolfram received when Yuuri thought he had been asleep one early morning and which also had led to the later kisses, and four embraces of varying tenderness and length in counting. It was so much attention, when compared to the nearly three years he had spent in complete and terrible unrequited solitude that Wolfram hardly even knew what to do with himself, and so he did a whole lot of nothing. Honestly, Wolfram thought he may have even gained weight.

It didn't help any that Yuuri had apparently taken to leaving him charming albeit rather embarrassing notes whenever he so happened to wake before Wolfram and leave early to go jogging with Conrart.

The most recent note was particularly heartwarming and Wolfram read it again and again with greedy eyes.

_Dear Wolfram,_

_Roses are red_

_I'm not gay_

_This poem is bad_

_But hey,_

_You're still my fiancé_

_Love Yuuri_

_P.S. I want to talk to you later today. I asked Doria and the maids to set up lunch for us in the gardens, so meet me there after you're finished with training._

Love Yuuri. _Love. Love. Love._ Wolfram ended up loosing track of his morning, staring at the word. By the time he had finished bathing and dressing and scarfing what was left of breakfast in the dining room, he was still nearly five entire minutes late to running drills with his men.

His personal detachment of soldiers were standing around the training grounds, lazily chatting with one another. Apparently they hadn't seen fit to begin without him. Wolfram dispersed his scowl evenly between all of them. Descending the flat steps of the practice arena, he prepared to scold them thoroughly, running through his preferred derogatory terms and patronizing phrases before hand in his head. What kind of private battalion did they think they were, slacking off just because their commanding officer had been several minutes late?

Alas, it all turned out to be in vain. Apparently, Wolfram wasn't nearly bitter or angry enough to actually incur his full wrath upon his troops and it was obvious to all of his men that Lord Von Bielefeld was in an unfortunately good mood. They still didn't receive any breaks between the start of practice and the mandatory rest hour for lunch, however, but that wasn't necessarily so unusual.

* * *

The gardens were as beautiful as ever, a mosaic of flowers and bud dotted bushes reaching their soft petals skyward to a sun which barred no rays on such a perfect, cloudless day.

Yuuri sat at a white painted cast iron table, its intricate metal lace weaving a flawless reflection of the garden's various flowers. "Hey, Wolf!" Yuuri exclaimed, waving his hand around stupidly in the air. Wolfram resisted the urge cut through the bed of flowers in front of him to get to his fiancée. It was somewhat difficult, but Wolfram was nothing if not self restrained. There was also his pride to consider, and frolicking into the arms of the demon king like some sort of lovelorn royal fanatic, even if they were affianced, would be more humiliation than he could bear – especially if any of the maids saw him do it.

"Good afternoon, Yuuri." Wolfram said upon arriving at the table. As he sat, he glanced briefly at the small feast set out before them, tiered plates stacked with sandwiches of various fillings, an already well steeped pot of tea and a particularly sinful looking miniature cake, fully frosted with small, white rosebuds and chocolate butter cream.

"Wolf?" Yuuri's voice drew Wolfram away from the food and he snapped his line of sight back to the kind faced boy sitting before him.

"Yes Yuuri?"

A snickered laugh escaped Yuuri's lips, "I asked if lunch looked alright, but I don't think you heard me because you were staring at that cake like you want to have sex with it. I'm guessing I did okay with the menu?"

Wolfram suppressed a frown and pressed his lips together. "Yes, everything looks wonderful, although I would be more impressed if you had prepared it yourself. Also, please refrain from saying such uncouth things in public, Yuuri."

Yuuri sighed and leaned his elbow on the table. "Come on, Wolfram. Is anything I do ever going to be good enough for you?"

"Of course not," Wolfram said, smiling at the glint of amusement in Yuuri's eyes. "You're my fiancé. Not to mention a complete wimp."

"I feel like that's not how it's supposed to work… and I'm not a wimp." With a shake of his head, Yuuri returned Wolfram's small gesture and reached for one of the sandwiches. "Anyway, that's actually what I wanted to talk to you about today; our engagement, I mean, not me being a wimp. Which I'm not."

"O-oh?" Wolfram said and tried to conceal the sudden tremble in his hands by placing them in his lap, under the table. Speaking to Yuuri about their engagement always felt like being torn into two pieces. It was a fifty-fifty chance that Yuuri might decide to dissolve it at any moment, recent affections aside, and the coin which held Wolfram's ultimate fate seemed to be in perpetual motion, flipping sides continuously between heaven and hell. Most times, Yuuri managed to finish the conversation with the coin still spinning.

"I want to end it," but today it seemed that that two-faced coin finally decided to fall, and when it did, the devil stared up at Wolfram with a grin matched only by Yuuri, sitting across from him looking for the entire world as though not a thing was wrong with this situation.

Why was he smiling? Yuuri had to know what this would do to him. Yuuri knew how much Wolfram cared, how much Wolfram loved him. Why would he be smiling?

With shaking hands and a pounding heart, Wolfram opened his mouth to ask the only question he could really think to ask; Why? But Yuuri held up his hand.

"Wolfram," he said, still smiling. "I want to end our engagement, but I don't want you to be upset or worried at all, okay?"

Wolfram felt as though the air were being sucked out of his lungs. This was stupid. Did Yuuri not realize what he was asking? And why had he left that note this morning if _this_ was what he had wanted to talk about? _You're still my fiancé_. Did Yuuri write that poem only to mock him?

"Yuuri," Wolfram seethed, his shaking fingers curling into fists beneath the table. "I want to slit your throat, but I don't want you to be upset or worried at all, okay?"

Yuuri let out a laugh like the chiming of bells. It was loud and honestly amused, "point taken. I'm serious, though. Just trust me, okay?"

His lips pulled into a thin line and Wolfram shook his head ever so slightly. "I don't get it, Yuuri. Why would you-" he clamped his mouth shut, knowing that if he spoke another word his voice would hitch or squeak or break. Objectively speaking, it was a rather interesting experience; to feel himself slowly withering into the hateful arms of self pity.

"Wolfram? Hey, Wolf…" Yuuri was suddenly bending over him, having nearly knocked over the tier of sandwiches in his haste to get to the other boy. "Oh, jeez Wolf, don't cry okay?"

"I-I'm not-" Yuuri's warm palms fell upon Wolfram's shoulders and Wolfram found himself incapable of further speech.

"Look, I'm sorry Wolfram. This totally isn't how I had imagined this conversation going…"

"Oh?" Wolfram snapped, finally managing to free himself from the stupor of Yuuri's touch. He smacked Yuuri's hands away and stood up with a huff. "How did you imagine it going, Yuuri? Did you think I would get down on my knees and praise Shinou? Oh thank the gods, my fiancée is _leaving_ me, I've so longed for this day!"

"No, no, of course not! Don't be so dramatic, just calm down okay, Wolfram?" There it was; that stupid, crooked smile. The one Yuuri always wore when he knew he'd said something wrong but wasn't quite sure how to fix it. It would be followed by a nervous laugh, and a hand at the back of his head.

But those gestures never came. Instead, Yuuri placed his hands on Wolfram's shoulders again and turned his infuriating smirk into a gentle smile. "I know I should have probably approached this topic a little bit more tactfully, so I guess it's my fault for upsetting you like this, but I was serious when I told you to trust me. I'm not going to hurt you, okay Wolfram?"

Wolfram, who had been mentally writing out another diatribe of insults and arguments, slowly let his mouth slip shut. "What?"

"You do trust me, don't you Wolfram?" Yuuri's eyes stared at him, consuming his awareness like soul possessing black holes.

"I-o-of course I do, Yuuri."

"Then trust me. Let me annul our engagement, okay? I promise I won't do anything to hurt you."

Wolfram shook off Yuuri's hands a second time. "That doesn't make any sense. Just by asking this you're already-"

"Wolfram. _Trust_ me, okay?"

After several deep and somewhat psychotic breaths, Wolfram nodded ever so slightly and said, "F-fine."

At this, Yuuri's face broke out into an unbearably ecstatic grin. "Thanks Wolf." He said, and went to sit back down across the table.

Wolfram followed suit, reaching for the cake knife and slicing himself a hefty sized piece. He was going to need to consume at least eighty percent of this cake if he wanted to sufficiently drown his sorrows in moist sugary sweetness. So much for loosing that extra weight he had gained.

"Could you maybe not act so excited about this?" Wolfram grumbled, tipping his slice of cake onto the desert plate that had been set before him.

"Sorry," Yuuri said, but the grin never left his face. "I'm not excited about ending the engagement, I promise."

"I honestly don't understand you at all."

"I'm also sorry I made you cry… I really didn't mean to."

Wolfram's fork clanked rather loudly on his plate and he fumbled to pick it back up again before Yuuri noticed. "I-I didn't _cry_. I was just-my face was-it was sweaty… from practice."

"I can smell that honey shampoo you use all the way from over here, Wolfram. You weren't sweating. You probably took a bath before you came here just so you would smell good for me."

"Shut up you wimp! I was _sweating_!"

* * *

After the annulment had been formally announced and the papers signed and processed, Wolfram moved his things from Yuuri's room. This, for some reason, seamed to baffle the demon king, but Wolfram had no problem kindly explaining to Yuuri that it would be nothing less than a royal debacle to share a bed together when they were no longer affianced. Yuuri seemed dissatisfied with the explanation, but posed no further objections to Wolfram's move besides frequent and righteously pouty expressions and a huff of two.

One week passed, and then another. Letters began arriving with Yuuri's name scrawled on the front in all manner of frilly, looping calligraphy, begging him to give the sender a chance at being the demon king's new fiancé. Yuuri dutifully gave all of the letters to Wolfram for him to burn and they eventually started to make a show of it, watching stacks of manila envelopes roll up and cave into themselves, turning black and ashy beneath Wolfram's flames which danced in the whipping wind of a late evening. Some nights Conrart would come watch with them and then later they would be joined by Yozak, but by that time Yuuri and Wolfram had generally crept away on their own because is it was late and Yozak was not subtle. Other nights they would sit in the courtyard with Greta and Wolfram would tell stories about embarrassing things that had happened to him or Conrart when they were children while Yuuri stared, oddly intent, at the fire that gasped and choked on so many desperate letters.

On one such night while Wolfram was recounting a time when he had accidentally walked in on Gunter naked in the baths many, many years ago, and the subsequent childhood trauma and scarring that he received from such an event, Yuuri leaned against him in a fit of laughter and never quite sat up right again even after his persistent chortling had died out. It was odd, Wolfram thought, because since the end of their engagement, Yuuri had refrained from most of his earlier demonstrated affections.

That night they had burned the letters alone, cleaned up the ashes alone, and left the courtyard alone and Wolfram remembered that when they had arrived at Yuuri's bedroom, Wolfram had nearly been forced to shove the demon king into his quarters because Yuuri kept loitering around in the hallway and shuffling from foot to foot. It had been strange the way he kept staring at Wolfram like he expected him to do something.

At the very least, Wolfram thought, Yuuri was keeping his word. Besides the initial annulment, he had not done anything to hurt Wolfram, and nothing about their relationship had seemed to change save for Wolfram sleeping in his own quarters now and a general lack of kisses, short and chaste though they had always been. He even still found Yuuri's stupid notes scrawled out in terrible handwriting waiting for him some mornings when he woke. Although now the notes were not on his bedside table but slipped and sometimes jammed underneath the door to his room.

* * *

It was three weeks since the end of their engagement when Yuuri approached Wolfram in the halls while he was on his way to the bath after drills. It was not particularly the time of day during which Wolfram liked to run into Yuuri, being that he was not particularly in most refreshed of states, but it seemed that Yuuri didn't even have the capacity to notice, wearing a suspiciously obnoxious grin as he was and frolicking forward like some happy drunken deer.

"Hey Wolfram!"

Wolfram dutifully stopped walking and turned to face Yuuri fully. Up close it was much more obvious, despite the smile and the excitement behind his eyes that Yuuri was tired out from something. There were shadows beneath his eyelids and a sort of sag on the rest of his features which didn't so much look like anything as it did feel a bit different from Yuuri's typical happy-go-lucky demeanor. If he had to guess, Wolfram would probably say that Yuuri had only just gotten away from a bout of paperwork with Gwendal.

"I wanted to tell you," Yuuri said, breathing ever so slightly heavier than usual from his short jog to catch up with Wolfram. "I'm throwing a ball."

"Oh?" Wolfram said, and crossed his arms. He tried to look interested and nonchalant about it, but it had been harder to pull off such airs in the more recent weeks since the annulment and Wolfram worried it might not be believable

"Yeah, you're invited, obviously." Yuuri said, shuffling from side to side and smiling.

"Of course I'm invited!" Wolfram snapped. "Why wouldn't I be invited?"

Yuuri laughed and then shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know. No reason. I just wanted to tell you. It's going to be a _royal_ engagement." He said and winked and nudged Wolfram in the side.

"I don't like the sound of that, Yuuri." Wolfram said, keeping his tone somewhat light, but clasping his hands behind his back to hide them from his friend because they'd started to quiver again. Had he not been so nervous, Wolfram might have scolded Yuuri about listening to too many of Conrart's awful jokes.

"Don't worry. I think you'll like it, it'll be really fun, I promise."

Wolfram narrowed his eyes and waited for Yuuri to elaborate but he received no such explanation.

"Anyway," Yuuri said, now teetering back and forth on his heels. "It's going to be a week from today at seven sharp, so don't be late!"

Wolfram _humphed_ and tilted his nose skyward, "like I would _ever_!"

"Right, what was I thinking?" Yuuri laughed again and it came out an awkward sort of run-on trill. "Um, okay, well I have to meet Conrad for sword practice in like two minutes so, um, I'll see you at dinner okay?"

Wolfram nodded and watched Yuuri as he said goodbye and then took off down the hall again, waving behind him as he went.

* * *

The week leading up to Yuuri's ball was a horrible mess of anxiety for Wolfram, littered periodically with mild panic attacks during which he would have to sit down and remind himself that Yuuri had _promised_ not to hurt him. Yuuri wouldn't propose to someone else. He _wouldn't_. Sometimes the internal pep talks worked and Wolfram was able to remember how to breathe and continue on with his daily duties, but other times he had to simply wait until something distracted him enough to pry him from his own paranoid clutches.

Eventually all of the waiting and apprehension culminated in the final event and Wolfram stood before the doors to the ball room trying his best to organize his face into an expression that wouldn't make him look like a widowed peasant woman. Even out in the foyer, Wolfram could hear the commotion of the guests who had already arrived like the drowning buzz of insects which hummed in time with his beating heart.

None of this made any sense to him at all. Yuuri didn't throw _balls_. Well, he threw _base_balls, but that was an entirely different thing.

"Are you going to go in?"

Wolfram jumped at the sound of Conrart's ever-pleasant voice in his ear. "Don't _do_ that!" the younger boy hissed, wheeling around to face his brother.

Conrart simply smiled.

"What are you doing here anyway? I thought you were supposed to be on patrol tonight…" Wolfram cast a hasty glance at the still closed doors as though worried that they might disappear if he dawdled too long in the foyer.

"I was invited by his majesty, of course. My patrol was handed off to Yozak as Yuuri seemed quite adamant about my attendance tonight."

Wolfram huffed and turned back to the doors.

"I think it's about time you entered, Wolfram. His Majesty has been planning this for quite some time. He would be upset if you weren't there."

Slowly, Wolfram craned his neck to look at Conrart whose expression had not changed at all. "How long?"

"I believe he first mentioned the idea to me several months ago."

_Months_? Wolfram nodded and returned his eyes forward. _Months_. A thick lump formed in the middle of Wolfram's throat and he struggled to swallow it before bravely stepping forward and slipping through the doors. Despite his attempted subtlety, the doorman on the other side noticed his presence immediately and proceeded to announce Wolfram's arrival with a resonating and loud voice.

"Lord Wolfram Von Bielefeld Presiding!"

Wolfram cringed when two thirds of the guests in attendance turned to him, smiling and offering pleasant greetings as he made his way through the crowd of wire-frame dresses, frill, and lace. A pleasant ensemble of stringed instruments were humming out a saccharine melody from somewhere in the room, but it seemed that the actual _ball_ part of the ball had yet to begin as no one was dancing.

Yuuri, of course, was easy to spot. He stood at the front of the room on a two foot high plateau next to his throne, clad in a pitch black regimental uniform complete with golden epaulettes, tassels and embroidered stitching. The great sage and Wolfram's mother chatted idly near by while Gwendal looked on at the trio from a safe distance and Gunter fluttered about the crowd near by.

Lady Celi let out a shrill laugh and Yuuri, having apparently spotted Wolfram, smiled and beckoned to him. Whatever was happening, Wolfram had an awful feeling that it didn't bode well for him. Everyone was much too happy and no one seemed to care that this ball had absolutely _no_ purpose what-so-ever.

When Wolfram finally managed to fight through enough of the crowd to get close to the plateau, Yuuri seemed unable to contain himself any longer and came trotting down the steps and grabbed Wolfram by the hand, saying quietly, "You're half an hour late, Wolf," before dragging him back up the steps and towards Gunter.

"Yuuri!" Wolfram hissed, glancing nervously at the crowd now behind them. "We're in public! And we're not engaged anymore, you can't just-"

"Gunter!" Yuuri said, giving no sign at all that he had even heard Wolfram speaking to him.

The king's advisor snapped to immediate attention, looking down at Yuuri with an unnervingly caring expression. "What is it your majesty?"

"I was wondering if you'd mind asking the minstrels to stop playing for a moment?" Yuuri said, squeezing the blood out of Wolfram's hand in order to keep Wolfram from prying it out of his grasp.

"Of course your majesty, I'd be happy to!" And with that, Gunter fluttered off, into the crowd, swimming between guests with a graceful and practiced ease that Wolfram was bitter to admit he envied.

"Yuuri let go!" Wolfram said, attempting to ignore his mother's gushing in the background at their entwined fingers. "People are _watching_."

"You look really nice tonight, Wolfram." Yuuri said, ignoring him for, Wolfram took note, the second time. The compliment, however, was enough for Wolfram to allow Yuuri's selective hearing to slide. "I like that you wore white. We sort of match," Yuuri let out another of his awkward, nervous laughs and Wolfram turned to examine his outfit which, he realized for the first time, held a rather severe similarity to Yuuri's in cut and style.

Wolfram opened his mouth to retort to this sudden revelation, but his words were cut short by the sudden lack of music in the room, and then the slow and quiet decline of chatter as the guests began to turn their attention towards he and Yuuri.

"I uh, guess it's time." Yuuri said, finally letting go of his hand. "Um, sorry about this in advance, okay Wolfram?"

"What are you talking about, you-"

The word wimp was replaced by a loud, echoing _smack_ which had been produced by the collision of Yuuri's hand with Wolfram's face.

For a very long second there was silence, and then Lady Celi let out a squeal, followed by quiet murmuring from the crowd.

Wolfram could barely feel the entire left side of his face after the initial impact, and then it began to tingle as though it were being stabbed repeatedly by a thousand needles and – was that _blood_ he tasted in his mouth?

"Ah!" With a trembling hand, Wolfram reached up to prod the inside of his lip where one of his teeth had broken just barely through his skin.

"Oh jeez, Wolfram, are you okay? I didn't mean to hit you that hard…" Yuuri's hushed voice which seemed to carry around the room regardless of his poor attempts to be discreet silenced the low hum of the guests' chattering and Wolfram, still reeling somewhat from having his brain slammed up against the inside of his skull, slid his eyes up to meet Yuuri's worried expression. "I mean, I _did_, but, well, Conrad said I should slap you as hard as I could because it would mean I loved you that much more, but I think maybe he didn't mean _literally_ as hard as I could because you look-"

Wolfram tuned out Yuuri's anxious speech and searched the crowd briefly for Conrart who stood smiling near the entrance. That damn bastard managed to sneak in right behind the doorman with out being noticed. His smile increased half a fraction as Wolfram's eyes met him and the boy made sure to send his elder brother an acidic glare before returning his attentions to Yuuri.

"-and I just remember that I hit you pretty hard the first time, so I wanted to make sure I hit you even _harder_ this time because, you know, I didn't want to be outdone by _myself_, Conrad said that would be a little awkward, so-"

"I'm _bleeding_ Yuuri!" Wolfram exclaimed with sudden ferocity and held out his blood smeared fingers as proof. "Look!"

"I-I'm sorry! Here, I'll heal it!" Yuuri reached for Wolfram's lip but Wolfram quickly side stepped away from the gesture, sending a worried frown across Yuuri's features.

"Don't you dare! This wound is a symbol of your undying passion for me! How could you even think of healing it?" Even as he said it, Wolfram could hardly believe it was happening. Yuuri annulled their engagement to… re-instate their engagement? Although, he really shouldn't be surprised. Yuuri was a stupid wimp, after all, nothing he did made any real sense.

"Um.. sure," With a nod and a smile, Yuuri reached for Wolfram's hand – the one not dirtied with blood from his mouth. "Well, I guess I should sort of explain this?"

"Yes, Yuuri, you probably should." Wolfram said, his fingers tingling under the warmth of Yuuri's palm.

"Okay, I had been thinking that I should propose to you again because, well the first time it was an accident. But in order to do that I had to break our engagement first, so I talked to Conrad about it and he said it was a good idea as long as I really meant it and um," Yuuri's eyes flickered to the crowd before them which Wolfram was slowly becoming aware of again. "I wanted to do it in front of a lot of people so you would know how serious I was, so I threw a ball!" There was that nervous laugh again. "Isn't that great?" It was a statement that did not sound so sure of itself.

Wolfram stared at the crowd. He liked attention, generally. Mostly he liked it when it was from Yuuri and while Wolfram had never really had a problem with stage fright, most of the times in his life when he had been confronted with a stage; he had also been given a script and an act to follow. This time, Yuuri had put him right in the middle of the spotlight, script-less and more or less emotionally naked.

"Oh man… W-Wolf?" Yuuri's sounded far away and muffled as though he were speaking through a thick pane of glass as the realization of his situation dawned on Wolfram. "Are you okay? D-don't-you're not going to yell at me are you?"

"No!" Wolfram snapped, glowering at Yuuri and ignoring the fact that he _had_ just yelled at Yuuri.

"You accept, right?" Yuuri's voice was barely a squeak. "Because, I mean, if you don't-"

"Of course I _accept_, you idiot!"

"Oh," a relieved laugh broke through Yuuri's smile. "Good then…"

The gathering of persons before them seemed unsure of what to do with the circumstances that had been presented to them and so there was much anxious shuffling and muttering until Lady Celi came up behind Wolfram and Yuuri, putting a hand on either of their shoulders and declared, "Applause for the happy couple?"

Upon this direction, the crowd instantly broke into whoops and hollers and rounds of over-excited clapping that seemed equal parts forced and sincere.

"Gods, this turned out to be such a mess…" Yuuri moaned, his voice drowned out somewhat by the cheering which echoed endlessly in the room.

"Maybe if you had _warned_ me."

"But, I thought I made it really obvious with that royal engagement joke!"

Wolfram shot Yuuri a brief glare as their applause began to die down. "That wasn't a joke, Yuuri. It was about as funny as a natural disaster. And there was no way I could have known that _this_ was what you meant by it."

"Well-!" Before Yuuri was able to defend himself Lady Celi had come up behind them and was nudging Yuuri and Wolfram forward towards the steps of the plateau.

"Don't just stand around, boys!" She sang at them, her voice somehow carrying easily over the still excited crowd. "This is an engagement party now!"

Wolfram began to hurry down the steps, if only to get away from his mother's very pointed fingers prodding him in the shoulder but Yuuri's grip on his hand impeded his movement and Wolfram turned around to see his renewed fiancé digging his heels into the ground and forcefully halting his steps.

"No," Yuuri said with an almost panicked look in his eye as he gazed up at Lady Celi. "Maybe we shouldn't? I really, come on," Yuuri turned to Wolfram pleadingly, "Wolf? I don't want to _dance_…"

It took perhaps a total of three seconds for Wolfram to storm back up the steps to Yuuri. He held out his bloodied hand as he went and hissed, "Do you see this, Yuuri? Do you see what you did to me?"

Yuuri nodded meekly looking very extremely guilty.

"You are _going_ to dance with me tonight."

Yuuri kept on bobbing his head up and down in affirmation until Wolfram grabbed his hand once more and dragged him down the steps and into the crowd which parted like a sea before them. Somewhere someone had tipped off the minstrels to start playing again and once they arrived in the center of the room with the guests pressed up against the outer walls, spilling between columns like a herd of deer between trees, Wolfram placed his hand on Yuuri's shoulder and Yuuri's hand hesitantly found his waist.

"Wolfram I can't dance," Yuuri hissed and gave Wolfram the gravest look he could. On Yuuri, it ended up looking more silly than serious, but Wolfram took it for what it was anyway.

"No one knows that better than I do, Wimp. But you're the king. Anyone in their right mind who might notice would never even think of mentioning it."

"_You_ would." Yuuri muttered and his head dipped down to stare at their feet as Wolfram began to push him more than lead him into a slow waltz.

"That's different." Wolfram said. "I'm your fiancé." He was taken aback and almost lost his step when Yuuri's head shot up to grin at him.

Yuuri looked like he was about to say something profound, or possibly romantic, but instead he just said, "Yeah," and moved ever so slightly closer. Wolfram had to shuffle his footing quickly to avoid being walked on now that Yuuri wasn't concentrating on where he stepped.

Before Wolfram could make any kind of comment about this, Yuuri placed his fingers over the soft center of Wolfram's lips and it took all of the control Wolfram had ever stored up within himself not to kiss those fingers. At first, Wolfram thought Yuuri had simply been silencing him, but when Yuuri's touch lingered just a moment too long, Wolfram began to feel the healing magic which ebbed from it into the small cut in his mouth.

Wolfram gasped and almost broke the clumsy waltz they had going around the room. "Yuuri-!"

"Sorry, I really want to kiss you though, but I don't want your blood in my mouth, so is this okay?"

"It stopped bleeding awhile ago," Wolfram pouted and watched the checkered marble floor spin around beneath them as they moved.

"But it would probably still hurt, so…" Yuuri seemed to have grown impatient with Wolfram's stalling so he coaxed Wolfram to look at him by moving his hands from Wolfram's waist to his neck and tipping Wolfram's chin up with his thumbs.

If Wolfram hadn't known what it _actually_ felt like to accidentally set parts of his body temporarily on fire, he would have thought that his face had been set a flame. He was honestly marginally worried that his skin might burn Yuuri, but Yuuri for his part seemed not to notice, pre-occupied as he was with keeping his own face from turning too many shades too red.

When Yuuri finally leaned all the way in, Wolfram thought at once how different this was from his previous two kisses with Yuuri. The first being more of a peck and run than an actual kiss, and the second being so awkward, what with Yuuri not understanding that he and Wolfram did both have noses which did actually collide when not properly tilted, that Wolfram sometimes considered not counting it as a kiss at all.

He was thinking much along the same lines now as Yuuri broke away for a moment and his breath, which smelled as though he'd been chewing mint leaves constantly for the past three hours, ghosted across Wolfram's mouth in a heated puff of air before he came back to cover the same area with warm and soft lips.

Wolfram wanted it to last longer. He wanted to kiss Yuuri until he collapsed right in the middle of the ballroom from exhaustion or hunger. It was an unreasonable want, though, and they were eventually broken apart jarringly when he and Yuuri were bumped by a pair of idiot party guests dancing near by. What was quite worrisome to Wolfram about this was not that they had been bumped necessarily, but the fact that Wolfram had not ever noticed when any of the other attendees began to dance and he had also not noticed when he and Yuuri _stopped _dancing. This ultimately also meant that he had not noticed when he had let Yuuri kiss him quite intimately in the middle of a crowded room.

Wolfram certainly noticed all of these things now and when the dancing couple who had run into them turned to vomit out sweet and gushing apologies, Wolfram out right ignored them, wasting no time as he pulled Yuuri roughly aside and lectured him at length about the merits of public decency and the offense of public affections.

Yuuri nodded and listened intently the whole while and just when Wolfram thought he may have gotten through, Yuuri leaned forward and kissed him again right as Gwendal was making his way towards them to see if their brief debacle on the dance floor had been anything serious. At the sight of his little brother being smooched upon by his lip greedy king, Gwendal's frown increased by half a fraction. A thin line developed in the center of his brow, and he promptly turned on his heel and began walking in the other direction and Wolfram wondered for the first time in all his life whether endless and constant affections from Yuuri would prove to be as wonderful as he had always imagined or if perhaps it may in fact be something of a curse, nestled inside of a sweet, perfect blessing.

* * *

Thanks for reading! Reviews are always appreciated! C:


End file.
